Michigan state government will spend another $47.9 million
in federal stimulus money under a bill recently signed by the governor. As with previous state expenditures of this type,
Michigan Senate Bill 1166
draws this money from the $787
billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. More familiarly
known as the "Federal Stimulus Bill," this measure was supported by the
President and most Democrats in Congress, and was opposed by every single
Republican in the U.S. House and all but three Republican U.S. Senators.

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To many Democrats, the stimulus and its various spending
components are a signature accomplishment of the President's first year in
office. On the other side, opposition to this spending has become one of the
single largest causes of the grassroots "tea party" movement that has spring up
across the nation

Republicans in the Michigan Legislature were more supportive
of spending this latest chunk of the stimulus pie than their federal
counterparts were toward baking the $787 billion spending pie in the first
place. In the Michigan House, Republicans split right down the middle, with 21
voting for SB 1166 and 21 voting against it. One House Democrat, Rep. Coleman
Young Jr. of Detroit, bucked an otherwise supportive Democrat caucus and also
voted "no."

In the Michigan Senate, all but two Republicans voted in
favor of the $47.9 million appropriation of stimulus spending. Democrats all
voted in favor.

Detroit and other large cities in Michigan would be the
biggest winners from this new spending. According to a Senate
Fiscal Agency memo, $30 million of SB 1166's spending will go toward
"energy efficiency improvement" projects, with a large portion of that going to
"central city" buildings in Detroit, Grand Rapids and elsewhere. The money would be used to provide "energy
efficiency" retrofits for private residences, commercial buildings and public
buildings.

Michigan's $30 million share of this spending comes from a
$400 million U.S. Dept. of Energy grant program that is funded from the federal
stimulus act.

The Senate Fiscal Agency reports that the remaining $17.9
million from SB 1166 will be used to "support maintenance and demolition of
tax-reverted properties" in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Hamtramck, Highland Park,
Pontiac and Wyandotte.

On July 1, both chambers of the Legislature approved this
spending. SB 1166 was signed into law by the governor on July 21. The
MichiganVotes.org roll call votes for this bill are listed below.

As part of our efforts on government transparency, we obtained data on the compensation of most public employees in the state. This information has been used to fact check claims about salaries, verify data from other open records requests, and hold government spending accountable.

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